Mass Effect 3 Spoilers thread

[coco]

Mordin will live if Wrex is dead, you sabotage the cure, and you talk him down.

Ah, gotcha. Though honestly I don’t think I know anyone who had Wrex dead in a previous save. It’s Wrex! Everyone loves him.

I haven’t yet though I want to try it. I almost never play multiplayer any more but I love Mass Effect SO MUCH

Also, I’d like to try this whole “not using the power wheel to pause combat every half second” thing

Lol. I totally abuse the power wheel. Sometimes. I’ve just started playing a few multiplayer rounds to build up that galactic readiness. It’s pretty basic but sorta fun, though I find myself flinging the wrong powers out all the time. And yeah, I totally held down my trigger expecting the power wheel to pop up, only to realize all I did was fling out a singularity into my own face.

[Magnus]

Ah, gotcha. Though honestly I don’t think I know anyone who had Wrex dead in a previous save. It’s Wrex! Everyone loves him…

I think I love Mordin as much maybe even a bit more than Wrex. But I think it works better with Mordin’s heroic sacrifice as opposed to Shepard or Ashley having to put Wrex down. Mordin’s death was scene was perfectly done with him humming his variant of the Major General song until the end. I found it one of the saddest parts of the game, but it’s how he would have wanted to go and he didn’t have much time left anyway. I’m pretty sure he was quite an old man by Salarian standards.

[Splatterson]

Ok - I’m game to try multiplayer sometime. I’m in the Central time zone - let me know if you want to play!

[coco]

I’m on the ps3 which no one is on for ME3, so I’ve only played with randoms. Surprisingly it didn’t take too long to up the readiness to 100%, even though I’m awful at it. It seems you get a ton of points or whatnot each time you complete a full set of waves.

I’m almost at the end now (I think, since I had all my final speeches and talk with all my peeps)! I’m excited to see how it all ends (or does it?)!

I think I love Mordin as much maybe even a bit more than Wrex. But I think it works better with Mordin’s heroic sacrifice as opposed to Shepard or Ashley having to put Wrex down. Mordin’s death was scene was perfectly done with him humming his variant of the Major General song until the end. I found it one of the saddest parts of the game, but it’s how he would have wanted to go and he didn’t have much time left anyway. I’m pretty sure he was quite an old man by Salarian standards.

I liked Mordin’s dialogue stuff more - yeah his songs! (the bits where Mordin’s at the med bay with Eve is adorable! I reckon Eve and Mordin would’ve been quite a cute pair. :D) - but the setup was picking Mordin vs. the entire race of Krogans, so I couldn’t do it. (Though I can see why if Wrex is dead then maybe the other Krogan is an asshole like Gerrel which might make me pick Mordin instead. Though, probably not, since they’re a huge chunk war assets I think.)

But Mordin’s death was a sacrifice for the greater good, and it helped with the war against the reapers. He was at peace with it, he could stand proud in the end knowing he righted something (and it was a really great cutscene). Legion’s sacrifice? It really sucks but he also did it for the good of his people. There’s purpose. Tali’s suicide? Understandable at the time, emotion wise it blows for her, but ultimately utterly useless, except to make Shepard feel bad. Gerrel’s technically the one who made a terrible decision and caused the end of the quarians. She didn’t need to fling herself off that cliff, she could have stayed and fight as the last quarian. So oddly enough, her death - for now - pissed me off the most, even though I wasn’t particularly attached to Tali before.

[Starsaber]

Well, I haven’t hit 100% yet, but I did place first in my group for the first time earlier today. Usually I’m at the bottom, but with more or less the same group I got top and second.

Of course, having maxed chain Overload against Geth kind of helps with that.

I’m still running Bronze because I haven’t gone a whole game without dying at least 3 times (usually getting revived, but I never get Medi-gel in my packs).

[coco]

Well, I haven’t hit 100% yet, but I did place first in my group for the first time earlier today. Usually I’m at the bottom, but with more or less the same group I got top and second.

Of course, having maxed chain Overload against Geth kind of helps with that.

I’m still running Bronze because I haven’t gone a whole game without dying at least 3 times (usually getting revived, but I never get Medi-gel in my packs).

Congrats! I think the only time I’ve been first we died midway through the mission. Figures, as my teammates must really suck if I’m first and I am terrible at shooters, and I’m an adept. I’m usually still 3rd or 4th, and occasionally 2nd even though I’m pretty high up level wise for that character. Trying out the asari vanguard now, and I’m dying practically every other round - I’ve never played vanguard before - I feel sorry for those who are unlucky enough to be in my game. It’s kind of neat though since asaris don’t roll but blueshifts instead.

I’ve only ran silver once. Usually I select random, and bronze missions seem to be the norm somehow.

But yeah, I’m thisclose to finishing the game, but man, that final bit - or I hope it is - is brutal. It took me 10 mins to stop dying at the brutes and the harvesters, only to get frakked every time when the slew of banshees come around and I’m out of ammo. Stupid squadmates keep dying on me too.

[Starsaber]

Usually, most of my kills in multiplayer are from Incinerate/Overload. I just run submachine gun (Locust)/Heavy Pistol to drop my recharge time so I can fire them off every few seconds.

[Darth_Revan_Rules]

just so you know guys your readiness will drop 1-3 percent each day you don’t play/don’t complete a mission online

[Scopehound]

Sadly, I would tend to agree.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[coco]

ok, I just finished the game. Man those Banshees. I think they are my most hated enemies. That noise!

And…I’m not dissatisfied with the ending I have, oddly enough. I had 3 choices, one was to control the reapers, like what TIM wanted I guess, but I think it’s too dependent on Shepard maintaining control over the reapers, one was to destroy the reapers, but that one means giving up synthetics for organics, and the last one was to merge the two so everyone lives but everyone’s part synthetic.

I chose the last option, it seemed it was the only choice that actually stops the cycle once and for all, whereas the others merely delay it; and everyone - well, except Shepard, but I pretty much expected her to sacrifice herself in some form or another anyway - gets to live in what seemed like the next step in evolution or whatnot. Seems kinda BSG-esque too, better, actually (the BSG ending basically implied the cycle continues; ME implied the cycle has changed), except they aren’t burning all their tech in the sun.

Well, other than those mass relay stations. That was annoying, but it seemed like besides Shep controlling the reapers, they would be destroyed anyway once the crucible is activated. (oh, I did like the fact the citadel was the catalyst. I always wondered why the citadel was shaped the way it was.) But I wonder what’s going to happen with all the races since none of them would get to return to their respective home planets, heh. Then again, as a newly merged organic/synthetic lifeform, they’d figure out how to build one of those bad boys soon enough, right? It’s kind of ridiculous that all this time they never figured out how to build one to begin with. I’m going to choose to believe that, because I think that was the part I was somewhat dissatisfied with. I’m pretty good with the decision to merge the organics and the synthetics. Everyone seemed like they were themselves at the end of it, just with a different body, so what do I care whether it’s an organic or a synthetic one? Their souls remain.

So…is this like one of those depressing endings? I would’ve liked a longer epilogue maybe? - but otherwise, I’m pretty good with it.

[Darth_Revan_Rules]

ok, I just finished the game. Man those Banshees. I think they are my most hated enemies. That noise!

And…I’m not dissatisfied with the ending I have, oddly enough. I had 3 choices, one was to control the reapers, like what TIM wanted I guess, but I think it’s too dependent on Shepard maintaining control over the reapers, one was to destroy the reapers, but that one means giving up synthetics for organics, and the last one was to merge the two so everyone lives but everyone’s part synthetic.

I chose the last option, it seemed it was the only choice that actually stops the cycle once and for all, whereas the others merely delay it; and everyone - well, except Shepard, but I pretty much expected her to sacrifice herself in some form or another anyway - gets to live in what seemed like the next step in evolution or whatnot. Seems kinda BSG-esque too, better, actually (the BSG ending basically implied the cycle continues; ME implied the cycle has changed), except they aren’t burning all their tech in the sun.

Well, other than those mass relay stations. That was annoying, but it seemed like besides Shep controlling the reapers, they would be destroyed anyway once the crucible is activated. (oh, I did like the fact the citadel was the catalyst. I always wondered why the citadel was shaped the way it was.) But I wonder what’s going to happen with all the races since none of them would get to return to their respective home planets, heh. Then again, as a newly merged organic/synthetic lifeform, they’d figure out how to build one of those bad boys soon enough, right? It’s kind of ridiculous that all this time they never figured out how to build one to begin with. I’m going to choose to believe that, because I think that was the part I was somewhat dissatisfied with. I’m pretty good with the decision to merge the organics and the synthetics. Everyone seemed like they were themselves at the end of it, just with a different body, so what do I care whether it’s an organic or a synthetic one? Their souls remain.

So…is this like one of those depressing endings? I would’ve liked a longer epilogue maybe? - but otherwise, I’m pretty good with it.

to be fair…if we found a relay at the edge of our solar system that allowed us to jump from system to system much faster than the speed of light, then we find out from other races these things have been around for thousands of years and have never broken down…do you really think we’d waste time, money, resources trying to make our own?

[ol_whatsername]

ok, I just finished the game. Man those Banshees. I think they are my most hated enemies. That noise!

And…I’m not dissatisfied with the ending I have, oddly enough. I had 3 choices, one was to control the reapers, like what TIM wanted I guess, but I think it’s too dependent on Shepard maintaining control over the reapers, one was to destroy the reapers, but that one means giving up synthetics for organics, and the last one was to merge the two so everyone lives but everyone’s part synthetic.

I chose the last option, it seemed it was the only choice that actually stops the cycle once and for all, whereas the others merely delay it; and everyone - well, except Shepard, but I pretty much expected her to sacrifice herself in some form or another anyway - gets to live in what seemed like the next step in evolution or whatnot. Seems kinda BSG-esque too, better, actually (the BSG ending basically implied the cycle continues; ME implied the cycle has changed), except they aren’t burning all their tech in the sun.

Well, other than those mass relay stations. That was annoying, but it seemed like besides Shep controlling the reapers, they would be destroyed anyway once the crucible is activated. (oh, I did like the fact the citadel was the catalyst. I always wondered why the citadel was shaped the way it was.) But I wonder what’s going to happen with all the races since none of them would get to return to their respective home planets, heh. Then again, as a newly merged organic/synthetic lifeform, they’d figure out how to build one of those bad boys soon enough, right? It’s kind of ridiculous that all this time they never figured out how to build one to begin with. I’m going to choose to believe that, because I think that was the part I was somewhat dissatisfied with. I’m pretty good with the decision to merge the organics and the synthetics. Everyone seemed like they were themselves at the end of it, just with a different body, so what do I care whether it’s an organic or a synthetic one? Their souls remain.

So…is this like one of those depressing endings? I would’ve liked a longer epilogue maybe? - but otherwise, I’m pretty good with it.

Well, the so called “happy” or good ending is actually the destroy ending as it is the only one that actually allows Shepard to live if your EMS is high enough. Still haven’t quite figured out how Shepard manages to survive but Shepard does. And honestly the endings are all pretty much depressing when you take into account that Shepard either dies or if Shepard lives their love interest is stranded on some planet somewhere for who knows how long and if you don’t pick the synthesis ending there very well may soon be a lot of hungry Turians and Quarians since they are stranded around Earth for a while at least without the relays and can’t eat human food.

[Darth_Revan_Rules]

honestly I’m starting to think the whole ‘Normandy…magically with even the people that were just fighting with you on the ground on Earth jump away and get to a garden of Eden like planet’ thing was suppose to be the ‘hey look your buds got out and are going to be okay…the rest of all the species that just came to try and save Earth? well if they didn’t die in an explosion…they’re going to starve, yay!’

[Darth_Revan_Rules]

also just thought of something, assuming all the scientists that worked on the Crucible came WITH the Crucible within the fleets somewhere…if there’s any chance on building new Mass Relays…you’d think a gathering of all those scientists would be the type that could do it…the problem of course being does the Sol system have the proper resources to build one?

[coco]

to be fair…if we found a relay at the edge of our solar system that allowed us to jump from system to system much faster than the speed of light, then we find out from other races these things have been around for thousands of years and have never broken down…do you really think we’d waste time, money, resources trying to make our own?

I’d expect at least some research on it, if not extensive super expensive plans to erect one of their own! Curiosity is a part of human nature. (well, or sentient being nature) Plus, it stands to reason that people would want to learn the tech or glean off it enough to use it in other avenues of life. Especially with the species who are more scientifically inclined than others, like the salarians or the asaris, if not say the krogans. As you say, these things have been around since the end of time - I can’t believe not one person thought, hey, let’s study and try and understand how this works, or mimic it, or something, you know?

Well, the so called “happy” or good ending is actually the destroy ending as it is the only one that actually allows Shepard to live if your EMS is high enough. Still haven’t quite figured out how Shepard manages to survive but Shepard does. And honestly the endings are all pretty much depressing when you take into account that Shepard either dies or if Shepard lives their love interest is stranded on some planet somewhere for who knows how long and if you don’t pick the synthesis ending there very well may soon be a lot of hungry Turians and Quarians since they are stranded around Earth for a while at least without the relays and can’t eat human food.

I would assume with the ending I chose - that organics and synthetics are fused together so everything’s changed, the bodies, the trees, the leaves, the worlds, as implied with the end scene with all the tech glistening under the skin - all the species are changed physically enough they’re probably no longer have the same dietary restrictions as before. They are still stranded, of course, which sucks, but probably more preferable to them being dead and exterminated from existence, but I don’t see the implication that all the other species who fought at Earth would die from hunger. I guess that would suck for the other endings then! Does this mean this is actually probably the ~best ending? Depending on how you feel about organics vs. synthetics having to merge in order to end the wars between them. (which I don’t have a problem with myself).

As for Shepard, I would’ve been surprised if she lived after everything, so I didn’t feel too depressed about it since I was expecting it. It sucks of course, but I was ok with it.

[Buster]

It seems as if the shift in tone and narrative focus created most of the players’ issues with the ending. It was less of a happy versus sad ending sort of thing. For a game whose greatest strength throughout was its uncanny ability to hit emotional buttons from complete triumph to crushing failures, from hilarious to tearjerk, the ending kind of does a 180. So much of the game was about moods and moments and making the player feel what the characters must have felt. I got the impression the writers made a concious effort to focus on the emotional aspect because they wanted people to feel completely immersed in the events as they happened. It was a great approach, and any of the small flaws in the story to that point are forgivable because it’s like a mutual understanding between the writers and players that you can forgive tiny flaws in the story if the feel of everything is right. And the feel of this game was remarkably good. Perfect, even.

I thought the ending suddenly abandoned the rest of the game. As the game went on I could sense the stakes get raised. The danger increased. The tension wound tighter and tighter. By the time Shepard is about to make the final charge, I was ready for a glorious battle and death. It was like a balloon of emotion was right about to burst. The shift in tone felt like the balloon just deflated. The encounter with the AI felt cold, sterile, almost clinical. It completely contrasts the rest of ME3. That totally threw me after everything you go through to get there. I went from leaning forward with insane anticipation to leaning back in detachment from any real feeling. It was as if he was Bioware’s answer to Microsoft’s Clippy. It just seemed wrong and out of place. I think the slightly illogical argument it made didn’t help either.

I’m also someone who thinks the choices are all the same. The only differences being the control and synthesis choices having some kind of weird undertones that didn’t appeal to me at all and the destroy option seemed incredibly selfish. Shep’s best bud and love interest both deserting her on the battlefield, and leaving in her ship no less, in an impossibly short period of time leaves a lot of people scratching their heads, even if the relays exploding doesn’t mean the end of entire star systems. I wasn’t looking for rainbows and unicorns, but I didn’t expect Shepard to got out so meekly.

[Darth_Revan_Rules]

It seems as if the shift in tone and narrative focus created most of the players’ issues with the ending. It was less of a happy versus sad ending sort of thing. For a game whose greatest strength throughout was its uncanny ability to hit emotional buttons from complete triumph to crushing failures, from hilarious to tearjerk, the ending kind of does a 180. So much of the game was about moods and moments and making the player feel what the characters must have felt. I got the impression the writers made a concious effort to focus on the emotional aspect because they wanted people to feel completely immersed in the events as they happened. It was a great approach, and any of the small flaws in the story to that point are forgivable because it’s like a mutual understanding between the writers and players that you can forgive tiny flaws in the story if the feel of everything is right. And the feel of this game was remarkably good. Perfect, even.

I thought the ending suddenly abandoned the rest of the game. As the game went on I could sense the stakes get raised. The danger increased. The tension wound tighter and tighter. By the time Shepard is about to make the final charge, I was ready for a glorious battle and death. It was like a balloon of emotion was right about to burst. The shift in tone felt like the balloon just deflated. The encounter with the AI felt cold, sterile, almost clinical. It completely contrasts the rest of ME3. That totally threw me after everything you go through to get there. I went from leaning forward with insane anticipation to leaning back in detachment from any real feeling. It was as if he was Bioware’s answer to Microsoft’s Clippy. It just seemed wrong and out of place. I think the slightly illogical argument it made didn’t help either.

I’m also someone who thinks the choices are all the same. The only differences being the control and synthesis choices having some kind of weird undertones that didn’t appeal to me at all and the destroy option seemed incredibly selfish. Shep’s best bud and love interest both deserting her on the battlefield, and leaving in her ship no less, in an impossibly short period of time leaves a lot of people scratching their heads, even if the relays exploding doesn’t mean the end of entire star systems. I wasn’t looking for rainbows and unicorns, but I didn’t expect Shepard to got out so meekly.

Well said, see I went into the ending frankly expecting Shepard to die, I figured some sort of self sacrifice to destroy the Reapers kind of thing…but just the way it ended felt like a 'hey everyone’s screwed no matter what, pick which level of screwed you want everyone to be!" just left me with a…“why I did I even bother?” kind of feeling

honestly ME3 up until you’re running to get to the beam to go up to the Citadel was the best game I’ve ever played, so many emotions, the story connecting to things I did in previous games, I genuinely cared…then the ending…ugh…it was like having a fantastic steak/lobster dinner then having spoiled fruit for desert

[ol_whatsername]

It seems as if the shift in tone and narrative focus created most of the players’ issues with the ending. It was less of a happy versus sad ending sort of thing. For a game whose greatest strength throughout was its uncanny ability to hit emotional buttons from complete triumph to crushing failures, from hilarious to tearjerk, the ending kind of does a 180. So much of the game was about moods and moments and making the player feel what the characters must have felt. I got the impression the writers made a concious effort to focus on the emotional aspect because they wanted people to feel completely immersed in the events as they happened. It was a great approach, and any of the small flaws in the story to that point are forgivable because it’s like a mutual understanding between the writers and players that you can forgive tiny flaws in the story if the feel of everything is right. And the feel of this game was remarkably good. Perfect, even.

I thought the ending suddenly abandoned the rest of the game. As the game went on I could sense the stakes get raised. The danger increased. The tension wound tighter and tighter. By the time Shepard is about to make the final charge, I was ready for a glorious battle and death. It was like a balloon of emotion was right about to burst. The shift in tone felt like the balloon just deflated. The encounter with the AI felt cold, sterile, almost clinical. It completely contrasts the rest of ME3. That totally threw me after everything you go through to get there. I went from leaning forward with insane anticipation to leaning back in detachment from any real feeling. It was as if he was Bioware’s answer to Microsoft’s Clippy. It just seemed wrong and out of place. I think the slightly illogical argument it made didn’t help either.

I’m also someone who thinks the choices are all the same. The only differences being the control and synthesis choices having some kind of weird undertones that didn’t appeal to me at all and the destroy option seemed incredibly selfish. Shep’s best bud and love interest both deserting her on the battlefield, and leaving in her ship no less, in an impossibly short period of time leaves a lot of people scratching their heads, even if the relays exploding doesn’t mean the end of entire star systems. I wasn’t looking for rainbows and unicorns, but I didn’t expect Shepard to got out so meekly.

I agree. The Normandy scene makes no sense at all especially for my Shepard who romanced Liara. I mean she took on the Shadow Broker to get Shepard’s body back and we’re suppose to buy that she is okay with abandoning Shepard?

As for the ending choices, the control and synthesis options to me and my Shepard feel too much like letting the Reapers win in some way for Shep to go with either option. Destroy is a sucky choice as well because it gets rid of the Geth and EDI too but it was the choice that really felt like Shepard was doing what she set out to do.

It will be interesting to see what this ending DLC Bioware is giving will do to the end of the game. Personally, I just pretend that destroy kills the Reapers but doesn’t destroy the relays or the Geth or EDI and that buzzard Normandy scene never happens. Liara and Garrus manage to follow Shepard up to the Citadel and rescue her. I’m happy with making up my own ending for my Shepard.

[Buster]

I agree. The Normandy scene makes no sense at all especially for my Shepard who romanced Liara. I mean she took on the Shadow Broker to get Shepard’s body back and we’re suppose to buy that she is okay with abandoning Shepard?

As for the ending choices, the control and synthesis options to me and my Shepard feel too much like letting the Reapers win in some way for Shep to go with either option. Destroy is a sucky choice as well because it gets rid of the Geth and EDI too but it was the choice that really felt like Shepard was doing what she set out to do.

It will be interesting to see what this ending DLC Bioware is giving will do to the end of the game. Personally, I just pretend that destroy kills the Reapers but doesn’t destroy the relays or the Geth or EDI and that buzzard Normandy scene never happens. Liara and Garrus manage to follow Shepard up to the Citadel and rescue her. I’m happy with making up my own ending for my Shepard.

Yeah, my Shepard romanced Liara and watching her put herself out there like that was maybe the sweetest thing I ever saw. I sent my favorite Shepard into this game. She was my baby girl, and I was so glad I let her have first run at this game. The story turned out to have a more of feminine feel to it if that makes sense, so it was perfect. Maybe it’s because the story felt more personal, intimate and emotional than ME2. If I had known how ME3 would end I’d have sent her dumb older brother into it. He’s a real level 22 dumbass, that spent the entirety of the previous game just trying to sleep with Miranda. Paragon interrupt? Renegade interrupt? Didn’t matter, he’d go for it just to see what would happen. Turn everything over to The Illusive Man? Sure. He didn’t care. Too stupid. I may have eventually gotten a chuckle out of watching him get trolled into committing suicide in ME3. But they did it to my girl and it hurt bad.

It does really suck that a lot of fans have to headcanon the ending just to feel better about it. I can’t bring myself to, unfortunately. What’s worse is, I don’t know if DLC will help. For me, like so many others, the emotions I felt were real. No experience in any medium had ever been so evocative for me. It was the first playthrough so everthing you see and do is brand new and it’s a constant journey into the unknown, which heightened all the feelings you have as you go. Now that I’ve seen what happens, even a great ending won’t have the same punch. I get to see Shepard die three ways that each feel so distant and removed from all that came before that it really has desensitized me to the threat. Whatever Bioware added could be even more anticlimatic. They took a story powered by ever escalating emotions and made it an abstract philisophical quiz that couldn’t even be bothered to make sense (And my friends took my ship too. Jerks.). In short, the moment has passed and I can’t get back to that place in my head. I’m not angry at them, but that last point gets me the most frustrated. I really do get that a lot of people are happy with the ending as it is, but I can’t get there from here.

I’d still love to see more options put in because that’s what makes Mass Effect so awesome. I’d play the game and try all of the possible endings to see what happens. This game isn’t perfect by any means, but it’s one of the best sci fi stories ever created. In this chapter Shepard emerges as one of the best sci fi heroes/ heroines ever written as well. This game is scary good. While playing ME3 I actually said “Wow, these guys are going to get so much money from me in dlc”. At the time, I thought it was a choice. Now I wonder if we ever really had a choice at all about it.

Then again, hearing the female Krogan thank Shepard on the Normandy, killing Kai Leng exactly the way I promised I would when I got my hands on him again, Liara and Shepard coming clean about their feelings… Well Bioware at least has a fair shot at winning back my affections if all of this wasn’t some funny business to charge people extra just to get a complete product. Blue grandbabies should not be completely off the table either… Just sayin’…

[ol_whatsername]

Yeah, my Shepard romanced Liara and watching her put herself out there like that was maybe the sweetest thing I ever saw. I sent my favorite Shepard into this game. She was my baby girl, and I was so glad I let her have first run at this game. The story turned out to have a more of feminine feel to it if that makes sense, so it was perfect. Maybe it’s because the story felt more personal, intimate and emotional than ME2. If I had known how ME3 would end I’d have sent her dumb older brother into it. He’s a real level 22 dumbass, that spent the entirety of the previous game just trying to sleep with Miranda. Paragon interrupt? Renegade interrupt? Didn’t matter, he’d go for it just to see what would happen. Turn everything over to The Illusive Man? Sure. He didn’t care. Too stupid. I may have eventually gotten a chuckle out of watching him get trolled into committing suicide in ME3. But they did it to my girl and it hurt bad.

It does really suck that a lot of fans have to headcanon the ending just to feel better about it. I can’t bring myself to, unfortunately. What’s worse is, I don’t know if DLC will help. For me, like so many others, the emotions I felt were real. No experience in any medium had ever been so evocative for me. It was the first playthrough so everthing you see and do is brand new and it’s a constant journey into the unknown, which heightened all the feelings you have as you go. Now that I’ve seen what happens, even a great ending won’t have the same punch. I get to see Shepard die three ways that each feel so distant and removed from all that came before that it really has desensitized me to the threat. Whatever Bioware added could be even more anticlimatic. They took a story powered by ever escalating emotions and made it an abstract philisophical quiz that couldn’t even be bothered to make sense (And my friends took my ship too. Jerks.). In short, the moment has passed and I can’t get back to that place in my head. I’m not angry at them, but that last point gets me the most frustrated. I really do get that a lot of people are happy with the ending as it is, but I can’t get there from here.

I’d still love to see more options put in because that’s what makes Mass Effect so awesome. I’d play the game and try all of the possible endings to see what happens. This game isn’t perfect by any means, but it’s one of the best sci fi stories ever created. In this chapter Shepard emerges as one of the best sci fi heroes/ heroines ever written as well. This game is scary good. While playing ME3 I actually said “Wow, these guys are going to get so much money from me in dlc”. At the time, I thought it was a choice. Now I wonder if we ever really had a choice at all about it.

Then again, hearing the female Krogan thank Shepard on the Normandy, killing Kai Leng exactly the way I promised I would when I got my hands on him again, Liara and Shepard coming clean about their feelings… Well Bioware at least has a fair shot at winning back my affections if all of this wasn’t some funny business to charge people extra just to get a complete product. Blue grandbabies should not be completely off the table either… Just sayin’…

With the amount of time I’ve put into my Shepard and by extension her relationship with Liara (because all of my existing Shepards are with Liara) I am way too emotionally invested in their story, because to me Mass Effect really became the story of Shepard and Liara over the course of the last 3 games and that lovely Redemption comic. I’m more invested in the two of them than I am in any other fictional couple. My Shepard’s have all been loyally devoted to Liara since ME1. So when I played through ME3 for the first time the game actually made me feel like a colossal jerk, first for Shepard not being all that sensitive after the fall of Thessia (Shepard couldn’t even spare a hug for Liara after getting her ass handed to her by Cerberus and watching Thessia fall) and then because my Shepard died at the end of my first my game and totally broke her promise about always coming back. The whole 3 choices thing still doesn’t make any sense to me but knowing that they cut almost the entire conversation Shepard was supposed to have with the Starchild it doesn’t surprise me that they don’t make any sense to me. But I was and still am more upset about the fact that during the LotSB reunion scene with Liara the writers not only gave us an option to talk about a future after the Reapers but essentially let us as Shepard make a promise to come back and then turn around and make it kinda hard for that happen without headcanoning the ending. And then they had to go and rub it in some more by having Liara bring up a reminder of that conversation during Shepard’s last conversation with her in London. Before that scene in LotSB I hadn’t really expected to get the chance at a happy ending for Shepard in the end but then they actually let us bring it up in a conversation and I thought they might actually leave us with an ending that while not necessarily happy wouldn’t outright kill Shepard and thus still leave the chance for Shepard to have a shot a normal life after the Reapers. I can’t not headcanon the ending because of that scene in LotSB, because my Shepard wasn’t joking about that future nor was she joking about that promise. She’s already killed Liara’s mother and died on her once so Liara kinda has to still be on Earth for her come back to when she survives.

I’m about to hit Sanctuary on my 4th game of ME3 and I’m still getting emotional about things in this game. Every single bloody time I do that mission with the Rachni and Grunt I’m always on the edge of my seat at the end of the mission watching for Grunt to make it out. It’s my 4th game and I’m still worried that this time for some reason he’s going to die even though he hasn’t on any of my other games. My heart breaks every time I hit Thessia and I see Shepard standing in that temple watching helplessly as the Reapers take control of Thessia while Liara tries to comfort her (when it should obviously be the other way around). The rest of the game is so good that I want to headcanon the ending and ignore what is actually there because of how satisfying the rest of the game is and I hope the DLC will be as well because LotSB is a hard DLC to live up to.